around fifty people gathered in Paris to support the graffiti artist locked up for drawing a tag in the metro

In September, France protested against the three-year prison sentence of Théo Clerc by an Azerbaijani court.

Around 50 people gathered on Friday, November 1, in Paris in front of the Azerbaijani embassy to support Théo Clerc, a Frenchman imprisoned in this country for having drawn graffiti in the metro in Baku, noted the Radio France journalist present on site.

In September, France protested against the three-year prison sentence of Théo Clerc by an Azerbaijani court “for graffiti in the metro”denouncing a “arbitrary and openly discriminatory treatment”in a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Théo Clerc was sentenced on September 10 […] to three years of detention for graffiti in the metro while his two co-defendants, for exactly the same acts, holders of another nationality, were sentenced to a simple fine”, lamented the ministry spokesperson.

“I am here to support my brother and remind the French and Azerbaijani governments that we are here, and that he is still in prison”declared Charly, the brother of the detained Frenchman. “I ask that Emmanuel Macron do everything he can to help my brother.”

According to Thibault, graffiti artist and friend of Théo Clerc, “If he is locked up there, it is not because he did a graffiti. For me, he is clearly a diplomatic hostage. He is locked up there because he is French”.

A petition was launched and collected more than 30,000 signatures to support Théo Clerc, 38, an artist recognized in the world of graffiti. The gathering in Paris this Friday took place as the COP29 on climate change opens on November 11 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.